Rupert Oliver
The ideas man
As an early exponent of soft play and and indoor play centres, Rupert Oliver boasts one of the market’s more remarkable and yet, little known, track records. But his latest innovation proves that he is just as much about his future as his past. Ronnie Dungan found out more….
for saying that neither of those two monikers would be out of place if applied to Rupert Oliver. There’s no question that he is a very early pioneer of soft-play in the UK, and can even point to an appearance on Tomorrow’s World (Google it, kids) to back up his claim to fame, but his ‘Ideas Factory is still researching new innovations today, with his SkyRider product - an indoor/outdoor zip line course with bends and dips - currently finding some traction both here and in the US. It’s a long way from his beginnings nearly 50 years ago,
H
but it is rooted in the sort of practical approach which brought him to the market in the first place. “After 10 years of travelling the world, in the late 1960s I needed to settle down to a more regular job,”
February 2017
e probably wouldn’t thank you for call him the Grandfather or even the Godfather of family entertainment centres, but there’s a strong case
he explains, “so I became a designer of furniture and other ideas, using foam, PVC and acrylics because they were the ‘new’ materials of that time. I wanted to compete with the influx of Scandinavian designed furniture. My ‘Leaf Chair’, a single point of suspension chaise longue, is still being sold worldwide in the special needs market, and rather excitingly is about to be relaunched into the interior design sector where it started.
“In the early 1970s BBC TV’s Tomorrows World made three programmes about my work, including the first springy rocker (now in playgrounds everywhere) and the Totally Soft Play environment. I had invented what we now all call Soft Play as a means of sensory, interactive play in a soft and safe environment for children with impaired sight and other special needs, and the BBC programmes raised awareness of it.”
www.globalamusementsandplay.com 11
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28